Open Source Software Vs Proprietary Software Sakshi Singh, Madhvik Verma, Naveen Kumar N

International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research Volume 8, Issue 12, December-2017 735 ISSN 2229-5518

Abstract— Open Source software are the most revolutionizing concept that has been put forth in the Information Technology spectrum. This new release has raised quite a lot of brows, similar to when the Internet was launched. For a very long time, there has been a tiff going on between the Proprietary software and the open source software and how the open source software are taking over their ancestors. The technical experts often indulge in conversations as to which of the two software is better and why. People also get confused as to which type of software can be listed as Open source. In this paper we aim to emphasize that the open source development cycle has been there in the market for quite some time and has a huge user base now, thus giving it a strong hold in the software market. It has encouraged the use of new strategically placed actions which has in turn made a huge base for open source software systems. On the other hand, many experts also suggest that this is just momentary and it will pass over a period of time whereas the proprietary software are there to stay. This paper gives the understanding and recommendations for both the kind of software thus giving the user a proper understanding of which software is suitable for their use and thus they can make a better choice for their purpose.

Index Terms— Open Source Software, OSS, Free Software, Proprietary Software ——————————  ——————————

1 INTRODUCTION ust like the trend of desktop computers and our famous and transitioning from proprietary to open source by going from beloved Internet, Open source software have been both Windows (Internet Explorer) to Linux (Mozilla Firefox). Jpraised and criticized since it first appeared in the markets due to its unexpected arrivals with proprietary software in In this war of survival of the fittest, both the software plat- opposition. There has been a lot of uproar against the Open forms have been worked on day in and day out to become Source Software(OSS) due its wide availability and the various even better and thus increasing their profits tremendously. new aspects it brings forth. Open Source Software(OSS) was There are various kind of strategies that the proprietary soft- developed as a workstation project because it’s source code is ware is adopting in order to beat their opponents which only procured within a license which allows the users to use it, proves the growing effectiveness of open source software modify/change it so as to improve the services and to which has shaken an already established structure. reallocate it in a new framework or in the previous one only. It is constantly processed in an open, user-friendly and transparent environment. Open source software gives 2 LITERATURE REVIEW information, required skill set and the knowledge to use it to The most frequently cited question on the theory of open make it user-friendly which is its main ideology. The idea source software is to find out what tangible and intangible behind it is that when anIJSER individual is going through the profit and motivation are the developers of open source soft- source code certain mistakes and bugs are easily spotted by the ware getting from working so hard on giving the world a free person. Due to the large number of people using it, bugs are software .The possible set of reasons have been divided into found at a very fast rate. two categories, first being the internal reasons like gaining We begin this paper by plainly putting forth a knowledge and learning new things on the way ,and the ex- demonstration of the brief yet interesting history of the open ternal reasons being uncertainty in career and being recog- source software. We also show that the open source software is nized by the fellow members . here for the long run and that, their heritage is important for people to know since people have been perceiving it negatively The second major concern that was proposed is how effective also. The new emerging technologies that come along with are open source software and the growing rivalry between the open source software open a plethora of opportunities for the open source and proprietary platforms. Some researchers have developers and also give us, the consumers, the power to reached a conclusion that open source software is equally effi- change and use the software as we like. In our paper, we aim to cient and equally good in quality as compared to the proprie- compare different aspects of Open source and proprietary tary software. They have reached this conclusion by testing a software and also list down the ups and downs of using each particular software in both a closed and open environment kind of software. and checking its behavior. Mukund stated in his works that the scope of improvement is way more in open source as It is a known fact that since the arrival of open source compared to proprietary because its source code is being criti- software, the sales of proprietary software has tremendously cally examined by each new user getting added to the com- gone down. This is due to the wide availability and ease of use munity. Menell reached a conclusion that for open source of the open source software. In a study conducted by Amazon, they reached a conclusion that their technological costing went software to stay top-notch in its quality they need to have a down by 25 percent since they started to adopt open source presentable structure and should be highly compatible with software. In Munich, a city in Europe, people are actively the upcoming technologies. The completion between open source and proprietary has been a widely talked about topic. The fight can be visualized IJSER © 2017 http://www.ijser.org International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research Volume 8, Issue 12, December-2017 736 ISSN 2229-5518 by seeing the example of Linux vs Windows wherein we see a The software package consists of: non-profit organization competes with a for-profit organiza- a. Free Rights to distribute tion. Linux aims at maximizing the welfare and providing the b. Source Code free access software to the masses, whereas Windows aims only at max- c. Modification control to the user imizing its own profit. This rivalry can have two possible out- d. Distribute the new Modifications done comes as predicted by the experts. The first one being that e. Forbidding the right to modify to a person both of these software get a separate user base which ends who doesn’t follow the licensing agreement their fight and they co-exist in the market or Linux gets kicked D. Proprietary Software out of the market because of the strong-hold of Windows over For this software a set of advantages are entrusted only in the the market. hands of the person or organization that holds the copyright to it. It can be made by an individual or an organization who can either use a pre-existing framework or build the software 3 OFTWARE AND ITS TYPES S from scratch to match their ideologies. They exercise certain Software can be defined as the code that when executed con- advantages and privileges over the software. Unlike open trols and conducts operations of a system/machine to provide source, proprietary software keeps their source code a hidden different functionalities depending on what purpose it solves. mystery. They also do to not make the structure of their pro- Software is a complete sphere consisting of basic to very ex- gram a topic of public knowledge. There are a set of limita- tensive engineering techniques to improve its efficiency and to tions that are put on the software based on the EULA (End- keep up with the upcoming technologies. It acts as a function- User license agreement) which the user has to accept before al unit of the system which is responsible for supervising and getting into using the software. This is done to avoid copy- managing the hardware of the system and to tell the other right infringement by any individual over the software. software that the particular hardware will be used for its own E. Public Domain Software work. It also keeps a copy of the low-key system functions that The owner or the developer of the software completely gives it it might need to call during its course of execution. to the public domain without any copyright or any limit over There are different kinds of software available in the market the accessing of features in the software. like: F. Trial Ware software A. Freeware software It is a time based software meaning that the user can access the These are the software that are available for free on the inter- functionalities only within the restricted time period. The user net and these can be used by anyone irrespective of the region is given a list of the programs or processes which will get they are living in. Andrew Fluegelman came up with the term blocked after a certain time period or a certain number of “Freeware” in 1982 to tell his fellow researchers about a pro- times. After paying the owner organization, the user gets un- ject he worked on called the PC-Talk. Every person using a limited and unrestricted access to all the functions of the soft- freeware software gets a duplicate of the copyright laws that ware and also gets new updates (if any). are involved with the software to keep the sanctity of the developer intact. Freeware softwareIJSER do not accept altering pro- demonstrated in this document, the numbering for sections gramming and their developers are the ones solely responsible upper case Arabic numerals, then upper case Arabic numerals, for how they work and for fixing the bugs. separated by periods. Initial paragraphs after the section title B. Shareware software are not indented. Only the initial, introductory paragraph has This kind of software gives the consumer/user a slight sneak- a drop cap. peak into the real software. This trial version has many functions hidden. To access the whole software, the user needs to buy the software from a reliable source. It also consists a set of 4 OPEN SOURCE AND PROPRIETARY SOFTWARE copyright laws which enable the makers to be the sole authori- Many people have been using proprietary software over the ty responsible for the software and all the rights are in the widely available open source software because they have a hands of usually one person. Some functionalities might be misconception that they are at risk while using a software restricted to the administrator only whereas the others can be which can be accessed by anyone. What they don’t understand enjoyed by anyone who actually buys the software. This soft- is the changes being made in the software pose no threat to ware doesn’t have the ability to change and is often rendered their personal data. They often live under a misconception useless after a period of time. Thus, the makers publish new that since the proprietary software is paid, they are relatively versions regularly to keep it functional. The final call regard- easier to learn and understand. Whereas on the contrary, the ing any matter what-so-ever remain in the hands of the crea- truth is that Open source software is fairly simple with all its tor. functions. Here we list out the differences between both Open C. Open Source Software source and proprietary software based on various aspects to This kind of software has the flexibility of being modified, reach a better conclusion as to which one suits which kind of passed on or shared and viewed by anyone who follows a par- individual/organization. ticular licensing agreement that is set by the creator. This is so because its source code is public. This helps it to remain bug- free and increases the efficiency of the software.

Table 1- Open Source Software Versus Proprietary Software

Factor Open Source Software Proprietary Software

The costing of proprietary software starts from some thousand to some hundred thousand Rupees (INR) depending on OSS is a free software which makes it the best the complexity of the software and the choice for the in-house works. If a person is purpose it is used for. running a business or any work from home, the open source software can prove to be This cost is an amalgamation of some highly capacitive with least expenses on tech- base charges for the actual programming nological aspect. Certain skill set is required involved, administration rights and the to work with an OSS. One must keep in mind permit charges (can be monthly or year- that although the software is free, expenses ly). The consumer in turn gets an efficient can be incurred once the software is set up and robust software which bountiful se- and starts working. curity measures to protect data from at- tackers, constant changes in the software Open source software is expected to be free Expense through updates to make it better and but nowadays for specific add-ons the crea- free of glitches, packing costs and addi- tors have started charging people which tional costs for certain special skills that might end up being equal to other paid soft- the software possess. ware thus deviating from its purpose. People should always benefit from the open source The final goal of such software is to back software and optimize the software in the the components and maintain a good ac- process without worrying about any addi- cess to the product sites. The additional tional charges or subscription money. charges that the open source software are asking for , to use the add-ons is only

giving the proprietary software an edge over OSS because the roundabout cost comes somewhat same only. IJSER Good administration and regular up- The main problem with open source software dates are the highlighting features of any is that of Administration. The bugs and proprietary software. The users are pro- glitches in the software are communicated via vided with immediate and effective help online blogs and discussion forums. These in case of need which is 100% secure and means might be super-fast at certain times, safe. This saves both time and effort from whereas very slow on the other. Consumers the user side thus making him/her favor Services have to depend on certain unreliable sources this software. The exclusive program- and sup- to get help in case of any technical issue and ming is the main part where the service port pro- the updates can’t be trusted blindly since they and support part of proprietary software vided might come from a completely unknown becomes strong. Backup is also provided source. The software might become unre- to the clients to safeguard the data from sponsive if a lot of people are trying to cause being lost. Along with this, a certain changes which might decrease efficiency. demo is provided to make them familiar with the software and its functions.

Proprietary software has their source Open source software gives wings to the im- codes hidden from the users. This in turn aginative minds for them to innovate and get provides undivided security and amaz- used to the software environment and also to ing quality of services which is tough to help them make the software better suited for compete with. Certain software have dif- their own use. ferent modes of operation depending on the type of user. These different modes It also empowers the users to spread the word help in the optimization of the software about the new innovations they bring about for the needs of that particular person. using online blogs or they can keep it to R&D department looks into doing it and themselves and not sure. This choice is com- also provides certain offers. pletely given to the user depending on their Scope to desire to share or not. Unlike OSS, the online discussion groups Innovate of proprietary software collect grievances Since the source code is being readily modi- and complaints from the users and thus fied on each person’s individual system, to try to make changes to solve their issues. bring about updates and to implement them Certain suggestions made on such plat- is a major issue of concern. If the developer forms are also put into consideration and aims to fix any issue or bugs or if they want to launched in the following updates. Be- enhance the software, the new changes might fore launching any new updated, it is ful- make certain functions unresponsive due to ly tested for bugs and are fixed before the the different codes. public version is released and any client can access it.

Open source software are often looked down Proprietary software comes with person- at when it comes to the ease of use. They do alized guide or instruction to go about not usually come with any manual or help the software. The experts working be- and the user has to figure it out on their own. hind the scene evaluate and work on in- TheIJSER innovation put forth t]by the users online creasing the functionalities that the soft- may not very well sync in with a new user ware has to offer. They also provide user thus making it tough for them to use. group based services which can be used for the greater good. The ease of usability Open source software’s entire structure is for proprietary software is quite high. based on the designers and developers without a prefixed framework. They don’t come in The manuals and instruction leaflets with the support to learn any additional lan- come in handy when the user is stuck in guage that might be used during running the a problem or wants to learn some new software thus giving user an unpleasant ex- program. The manuals are completely Ease of use perience. People who know how to solve safe to follow and doesn’t hamper the small bugs are the ones who benefit the most system as well thus helping the user to but the newbies usually have to rely on others learn quickly. to fix their issues. The organizations behind this software Open source software is not very legally bind- also hold seminars and sessions to intro- ing in some aspects and the user formatting duce new updates and to make the users can easily cause problems in the device. The friendly with the changes been made in documentation that comes along with the the software. The proprietary software software is usually just a brief introduction of packages in the recent times offer a lot the software but doesn’t tell the user anything more to the user as compared to the about the additional learning required. Hence amount they charge. when the user has certain issue he/she has to turn to online help to solve the query. This is both time consuming and inconvenient. This IJSER © 2017 http://www.ijser.org International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research Volume 8, Issue 12, December-2017 739 ISSN 2229-5518

also puts the user’s data at risk.

Open source software is not compulsorily Security wise, Proprietary software is a programmed in a closed space. The giants step ahead of OSS owing to the fact that usually have a dedicated team responsible for they have a dedicated team working day the development and programming of the in and day out to make the software software. But usually the software is being problem free and efficient. This is done is made and tested by people sitting miles apart a very controlled environment to get best in different corners of the world and they results. Security Is- may or may not be a part of the development Since the source code is only accessible to sue of the software for the entire course of time. these people only, it is completely in their This disrupts the continuity and the needs of hands as to how they wish to modify the each person might be different resulting in software. Also they work hard to avoid the development going in various directions. any third-party Trojans or any other bugs This can be advantageous but usually is prob- from reducing the software’s efficiency lematic for the user base. or security.

Any software is required to have a license to run. This license is basically an indication of how the software can be distributed and used. OSS are often referred to as “copyleft” The proprietary software on the other software in an attempt to mock how OSS do hand have a proper license in order to not follow the guidelines under a copyright. protect their years of hard work. The owner organization is the sole entity re- Open Source software is free and can be used sponsible for the development of the Software and modified by any person. Usually there’s software whereas the consumers can pay License and no organization in-charge of this and thus the to get the license to only use the software copyright license usually states that there is absolutely and not modify it. Licensing a proprie- no limitation on who downloads the software tary software collects revenue which is andIJSER how that person manipulates it. used for the furthermore development of the software. This only means that there are no other set of limitations posed on the Open source software and it can be used by anyone who follows the guidelines provided in the license agreement.

A major drawback of the internet is that there is no full-proof way to check if a website is trusted or not. Since a particular Open source software can be available on many websites, Proprietary Software, as mentioned earli- the novelty of these downloads is ambiguous. er, have a dedicated team for its devel- They might or might not be secure, even a opment. Each product is tried and tested very technically sound person might not be How relia- and since the user is getting the software able to make out the difference between a ble is it? directly from an authorized organization healthy and corrupt software. But since the it is highly trustworthy and safe to use. high amount of changes being made to tackle the above mentioned problems, online groups

take up the task of extensively going through the code and making it safe for use. They also try to include changes they feel are suitable for the greater masses.

Open Source Software is free to be download- The software is obtained from the parent ed from multiple websites on the internet. As Ease of organization which own the right to the discussed earlier, there are online blogs and availability software. But the trial version of any forums where people can post their issues proprietary software is available free of and grievances which are usually immediate- cost, and is available on the internet too. ly solved.

Using a proprietary software is a tedious The system of Open source software is very job since it requires the updating of not flexible in its approach. It has proved to re- just the software but also the hardware in How flexible is it? duce the IT cost of companies significantly order to keep up with the needs of the and gives the scope of innovation a major new software version. Each new version head start. This flexibility is provided at a aims towards solving bugs and issues very fast rate to the users. that arose in the previous version.

Customers don’t have much of an influence on the proprietary software company so the company may not pay a good ROS AND ONS OF ROPRIETARY OFTWARE 5 P C P S attention to the demands and ideas presented by the customer. 5.1 Pros And if a switch in company has been seen as a necessity, it can a. High effectiveness turn out to be expensive. Commercial products of proprietary software are designed b. Background process hidden with a smaller target of capabilities and characteristics. They We cannot see the insides and outs of the software. Hence, mainly aim on a small market of users as compared to the a little adjustment or modification, is unlikely. If any problem open source counterparts. Commercial vendor’s customer arises, we cannot solve it on our own. The users can only ask maybe a developer using a company’s utilities like libraries , for help from the company. Therefore , optimizations are not in fact application users also concern with easy utility and possible as a proprietary software is closed for viewing inter- functionality. nally. b. Powerful IJSER For survival in the market with all the competitors, a rigid hold on the product’s blueprint is required. The products are made from the beginning keeping in mind the future aspects and the updates which will come along in the way. It is more robust than the open source counterparts. ROS AND ONS OF PEN OURCE OFTWARE 6 P C O S S c. Full control and authority 6.1 Pros It is expensive to have the proprietary software but you get a. You can try them for free before buying them full authority over the software, its future journey with ven- Anyone can download the community open source easily, dors, its upgrades, bug fixes and revised paper work and that source code too, so that it can be evaluated. It is possible that it will be sold as an updated version. some COSS(Commercial Open Source Software) vendors even d. Support is provided based on your needs have a free version of software packages including the source The support system for the software is designed for the com- code. In fact, most of the open source software, mainly Operat- pany’s production in coming years. As they have a small tar- ing systems, are available as “live “ media, so that you don’t get as compared to their counterparts, preparation and cus- need to install the software and directly run it from the DVD tomer support after the software has been sold, is more com- or USB flash drive. plete and easy to use. When we compare the forums, the pro- b. It provides free support prietary software company gives direct help from proper con- It can be commercially integrated or evaluated but an open sultants and technicians, not just having a question and an- source package has the same global community of users and swer session like in the open source software firm. for user support, developers are there. Many things like forums, updates, newsgroups, email list, sophisticated docu- 5.2 Cons mentation and more is available for free. a. Highly dependent c. Open Standard support is provided

Communities with open source packages doesn’t adapt to software every year is only increasing exponentially. This money proprietary standards. They prefer open standards of commu- can be used to expand the IT sector if we replace proprietary nity protocols and data formats. Conformity is improved by software with open source software. The overhead generated by doing so, between open source and proprietary software. Op- proprietary software is something that needs to be eliminated erating system is also improved that leads to better conformity since India has a load of work load but low advancements on the for business and customer applications too. monetary side. Factors like low maintenance, high scalability, d. It has Fewer Bugs and faster repair rate high flexibility, open access to the source code, great performance Chance of exposing of glitches is pretty high as compared to etc. are usually credited for open source software to be such a proprietary vendor’s code as bigger open source software pro- huge success. Business where there are no constraints exercised on the resources, OSS might not solve any issues but in business’ jects have a lot of viewings to evaluate the code. Also, open where the need to compete and be better than the others is felt source communities are fast to execute a report. Moreover, as strongly, open source software is a cost effective solution because there is a software for source code, customers can easily edit it. it gives the scope to expand business using the funds saved. e. More secure than its counterparts As there is fast repair, security provided is well and good. A proprietary software vendor’s code can be cryptic or dense, it is hard to find the security bugs. It can be possible that there is 8 CONCLUSION an error but we won’t be able to see it. The recent trends have shown and demonstrated the wide f. Problem of vendor lock-in is avoided and abundant use of Open source software over the Proprie- Keeping aside the case of COSS, there is a very less dependen- tary software. The widespread popularity of OSS if forcing the cy on single vendor for enhancements, repairs and backup for open source software. Moreover, there is a very less chance of proprietary software makers to either step up their product so threat that the software may be a left-out software as the open that the OSS cannot compete with it or reduce the costing so source society is scattered and assorted. This can be a case that more people continue to buy them. Both ways, the con- where the proprietary vendor had to cancel their task. sumers are the ones gaining benefit from the whole scenario which is the ultimate aim. 6.2 Cons Success stories of Open source software can be seen in the a. Reduces the competitive aspect case of IBM which will be spending $1 Billion in order to use If a company also sells a software, then making products with Linux in their workspaces. Amazon has already shifted their open source code accumulates the proceeds from the sell, for the work base from Windows to Linux and has cut down approx- company’s software relying on the license agreement for the open imately 25 percent of their technological expenses. source software. When the proprietary code’s worth is depended on the open source platform is not sufficient to set the decreased We don’t know if Open source software is here to stay or constraint for allowing challengers to make similar software on not but one thing is for sure that they are key holders in the the same open source code. market in the present times. b. Not much support isIJSER provided . Big projects on open source have a large community that helps with the paper work, techniques and help mechanisms to sup- ACKNOWLEDGMENT port the users. Free support is not always efficient, sometimes the The authors wish to thank VIT University, Vellore. company wants a way to solve a problem with random code bugs. Big companies with which can pay for the best support available can have a good attention that is very unique from open REFERENCES source community. [1] Amandeep Singh, et.al, “Open source vs proprietary c. Not a very friendly user interface software” (2015) Open source projects are not that simple to understand. They target the users with less knowledge like the proprietary coun- [2] Robert Merges, Peter Menell,” Intellectual Property in terparts. Those users will not even care about the source code. new technological age” (2006) d. Can cause a huge economic risk Except Red Hat, big vendors of open source software have no [3] http://ben.balter.com/open-source-alternatives/ competition with equals. Sometimes it is possible if you require a product, there is a risk that the small, less experienced companies [4] Mukund Raj et.al, “Proprietary software vs Open source may not fulfill the requirements. software for education purposes” (2013)

[5] https://www.3pillarglobal.com/insights/proprietary-vs- open-software-the-pros-and-cons-explored 7 WHY CHOOSE OPEN SOURCE OVER PROPRIETARY? [6] https://www.cmswire.com/cms/information- Money-wise, Open source software is obviously the better choice management/open-source-vs-proprietary-software-there- because if we’re getting the same functionalities for free, one is-no-clear-winner-021752.php should obviously go for it. The money spent of proprietary IJSER © 2017 http://www.ijser.org International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research Volume 8, Issue 12, December-2017 742 ISSN 2229-5518

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